The advent of the Internet has provided advertisers with a new medium to promote goods and services. Compared with traditional media such as television, newspapers, radio, and magazines, the Internet provides advertisers a relatively inexpensive means to reach large groups of consumers in a targeted manner. Internet advertisements come in myriad forms: ads that appear in a separate window when a web browser visits a webpage (known as pop-up or pop-under ads); “banner” ads that direct a web browser to an advertising site when a user clicks, for example, on a image associated with the ad; or simple text links that transfer a web browser to another site when selected, to name a few.
Online merchants that do not want to incur the time and expense of placing advertisements on websites often employ affiliate networks to place their ads. Affiliate networks can recruit websites, commonly referred to as affiliates, to display advertisements for online merchants. Affiliates are often paid based on the number of users who click on or otherwise interact with a merchant's link displayed on the affiliate's page (pay-per-click) or the number of users who purchase a product from the merchant once the user selects the merchant's link (pay-per-sale).
Some affiliates use adware or spyware programs to increase the commissions they receive from affiliate network ads. An affiliate can buy an “impression,” i.e., the display of an ad, from a spyware or adware provider and have an ad generated by the affiliate network displayed when a user visits a specified website. For example, an adware application surreptitiously installed on a user's computer can request that a specified pop-up ad containing the affiliate network's advertisement be transmitted to the user's computer when the user visits a selected website. If, in a pay-per-sale system, the user clicks on a link displayed in the pop-up ad and purchases a good, the affiliate receives a commission. The use of adware or spyware programs in this manner may be against the codes of conduct established by affiliate networks.